Something To Think About
by Luciana Grimmaldi-Reid
Summary: After Eliot calls to inform her of Nate's injury and arrest, Maggie and Nate talk. Episode Tag S2Ep15: The Maltese Falcon Job.


When Maggie picks up her phone, the person on the other end is the last person she'd expect to hear from.

"Eliot?" Maggie asks.

"Maggie, Can we meet?" Eliot asked, sounding both worried and pissed.

"Eliot, what's going on?" Maggie asked, starting to get worried herself. The only reason Eliot would call her was Nate.

"I don't want ta tell you this over the phone, where can I meet ya?" Eliot asked, his accent giving away his distress.

"I'll be on the first flight out, you are still in Boston right?" Maggie asked as she logged into her computer to book her flight.

"Yeah. When you get here, come to John McRory's Place. See ya soon." Eliot said before hanging up. Maggie hurriedly booked the first flight to Boston then went about packing a bag. At this point her mind's going a mile a minute wondering what could possibly be wrong.

When Maggie entered the bar Eliot had directed her to, she saw the man she was looking for right away. Sitting down, she looks him in the eyes and asks,

"What's wrong?"

"Nate's been shot." Eliot said. Maggie gasped, then asked,

"What happened? How is he? What hospital? Is that where the rest of the team is? Why didn't you have me meet you all there?" Eliot shook his head,

"He's currently in surgery at Massachusetts General as far as Hardison can tell. I didn't have you meet us at the hospital because none of us are at the hospital, the rest of the team is upstairs."

"Upstairs? What the hell, why isn't everybody at the hospital? Do any of you even care about him?" Maggie watched as the retrievalist took care to get control of himself before he said,

"Of course we care about him, he's part of, no, he is the reason for the strange little family we've put together. Hell, it's because we care about him that we're staying away from the hospital despite everything." Eliot snapped.

"I don't understand." Maggie confessed.

"Our last client was a state cop that usually gets the arrest of whatever mark we're working that job. He'd been shot for getting a little too close to something during a case he was working off the books. Between Sophie being gone and meeting the cop's wife and son, Nate went a little round the bend. None of us were keen on taking on this job but Nate was adamant. To make a long story short, the job went pear shaped almost from the beginning and not even having both FBI and newly minted Interpol Agent Sterling after us could make Nate accept the job was blown. Still, we followed his lead, not knowing he was conning us. Never did get the chance to talk to Nate about this, doubt I'd get a straight answer anyway, but as far as I can tell Nate came back to the apartment. See we'd just kidnapped our mark away from federal custody, when Tara, the grifter Sophie sent in her stead, pointed out that if we managed to get away from this, we'd have to leave with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Now me, Tara, the others, we're thieves. We're used to having to run, leave everything behind, that's just part of the life but Nate couldn't." Eliot paused to take a drink of the whiskey in front of him. Maggie wasn't a stupid woman, she could see where this was going.

"Sterling knew Nate would come back for his reminders of Sam." Maggie said, Eliot nodded.

"Offered him a deal. I'm not sure of the details but most likely to let Nate have a second chance if he stood aside and let the rest of us go down. Anyway, someone tipped off the second mark and we probably wouldn't have gotten out at all if Sophie hadn't returned. As it was, Nate got shot as he was trying to trap the two marks with the evidence. Didn't say a word, tried to hide it. Smart as he is, the idiot seems to have a selective memory for what I do. We were headed toward the helicopter Sophie arranged to rescue us when we're surrounded by Sterling and the FBI. Suddenly Nate handcuffs himself to the railing and explains that he'd had Tara and Parker set fire to Sterling's physical evidence while Hardison had wiped everything electronic. So basically the only way Sterling wasn't blowing his first Interpol case was to let the rest of us go and arrest Nate. Of course, Sterling wasn't going to let Nate blow his cushy new Interpol job so just like with the Davids job, Nate was able to use Sterling's self- interest to get what Nate wanted. When Sterling and the main fed stepped away giving us some semblance of privacy, Nate gives us some bull about bein' family then the bastard has the nerve to look me in the eyes and ask me to get the rest of them to the chopper." Maggie watches as the retrieval specialist finishes his drink. She'd read the file IYS had on Eliot back when Nate had first started chasing him, she knew he had a military background and that it must go against who he is to leave someone he'd come to care about behind. Just as she's about to say something, her phone rings. Seeing the caller id, she says,

"It's Jim, probably to tell me about Nate." The look he gives her tells her what to do. She flips open the phone.

"Hey what's up?"

"I'm in New York on business, I'll be there as soon as I can." She hangs up. She puts her hand on Eliot's and said,

"It may have been a stupid way to go about it, and an even stupider time to make that kind of declaration but he was showing he cared in the only way he knew how."

A couple hours later, she's lead into a private hospital room where her ex –husband is handcuffed to the bed.

"Whatever made you do something so stupid?" She says when the cop leaves.

"Maggie, wha- what are you doing here?" Nate asks, clearly confused.

"Eliot called me, explained what happened. Now answer my question."

"I did the right thing." Nate defended.

"The right thing? Telling people who survive by not trusting anybody but for some reason trust you that you consider them family right after lying to all of them? That's what you consider the right thing?"

"They all have prices on their heads! This is the only way to protect them!" Nate shouted.

"Well, at least I know that part of you hasn't changed. Nate these people are only here for you, they care about you. Do you even realize what you did? Being self-sacrificial doesn't help anybody when it could have been prevented if you'd just listened to the people you claim to trust. And Eliot, I know you read the same file I did, did it even occur to you what position you put him in not only having to leave you behind but leave you behind when you're injured?"

"None of them knew I'd been hurt." Nate said. Maggie shook her head.

"I'm gonna assume that's the pain meds talking because I know you're not that dense. Who do you think called me? And don't you dare say Jim, he only called after I was already sitting with Eliot at that bar under your apartment. Nate, Eliot's job revolves around injure or be injured, did you really think you could hide it from him?" Maggie searched her ex-husband's face, could see he was going to be stubborn about this. She sighed, then said,

"Nate, just remember that these people, the people you claim as family, they don't want you to play hero. They want to be able to trust you and know that you trust them.


End file.
